Amara’s exhibition came up in the evening the next day. The guests that she had invited were looking impressed with her work. Inara and Lemuel were among them following Amara who was taking them through her paintings.The interior of the exhibition hall, which was medium sized, did have a creative, out of the box look. Zee had plastered several parts of the walls with earth colored fabrics. Against each of the pillars inside the hall, Zee had erected tall, live green plants, which she tied to the pillars with brown woven ropes to keep them from falling off the pillars.In the middle of the hall, an artificial fire burned. At first glance, it looked like the kind of fire that one would make during camping with a few dry woods. However, Zee’s version was a bunch of real dry woods that surrounded a bunch of battery-operated candles that burned like real flames, the candles, wrapped with brown paper to make the whole set up appear real.Inara had not been too surprised to find Zee at a cor

Inara had been home for about four hours when the call she had been expecting finally came through. She was already having lunch, another diet dish consisting of a cup of coffee and two drumsticks.It surprised her that the thought of cheating on her diet had long since disappeared, which was a good thing. Otherwise, now that Lemuel was not around, she would have found a way to cheat which wouldn’t have helped her in the end but only spoil her chances of success and put her in trouble with him.She brought the phone up to her ear, her food secondary now. She really missed him. She had never thought that she would. Things did change

At about 03:10 pm, Inara and Zee were watching a fashion show on the large television in the living room downstairs.In the midst of organized looking spectators, female models strutted along on the walkway, displaying several looking dresses that looked official.After the last model exited the walkway, a woman emerged from the backstage and stepped onto the walkway, taking a bow as the spectators gave her a round of applause.“You know that’s the designer of those office dresses right?” Zee commented.“Sure. Have you noticed that they often look normal?” Inara remarked.“Yeah. They are designers not models. Sometimes they are shy too.”“Yeah. I’ve noticed.”The screen filled with a lipstick advert and after that an acoustic guitar instrumental music fused in with a background of rose petals.A pink perfume bottle featuring Inara inhaling rose flowers, stood at the corner of the screen with words streaming beside it as the sexy voice of a woman read along;From the stable of Men’s Aur

Inara could not sleep at night. She lay on her bed, moping at the ceiling. She had heard that a change of environment usually made that happen but for her, that wasn’t the cause. She was completely miserable.Freedom from Lemuel was a notion she had entertained at some point in her life but now that he had given it to her, she didn’t want it. She was addicted to him.He had been a friend, lover, husband, big brother, mentor and father because he had loved her and parented her. She didn’t know how to be without him. That was why she had been crying. Even now, her eyes were welled up. Of course he had never mentioned love

When Inara placed the phone on the bed, a feeling of peace encompassed her. At last, love had been mentioned in her relationship with Lemuel. She had thought that the word was of no importance but now that it had come into play, she was feeling elated about it and she couldn’t help but smile as she knew that he was on his way.Lemuel grabbed his car key and exited his office, pausing by Glory at the reception, his mood lifted.“You can take two days off Glory.” He told her and saw her eyes grow huge with surprise.“Really sir?”“Sure.”Glory smiled. His mood had brightened considerably from the smile she saw him wearing. “Has the problem been solved sir?”“You bet it has.”“Congratulations.”“Thank you.” He said, exiting the office and leaving her smiling in anticipation of her much needed break.Among his Staff, she had borne most